We had a really early start this morning, leaving at 6am for the trucks trip to Maun so that the passengers can visit the Okavango Delta. I am not going to Maun, myself and seven of the passengers are meeting another truck and driver at Nata and transiting to Johannesburg, so today really was graduation day for me.

We were on the road for about five hours before reaching the meeting point in Nata, we all had some lunch at the nearby chicken shop before I yelled out, Ok team Joburg! Time to go! There were a lot of teary good byes as new friends fare welled each other and even Vialet started crying. We all jumped on the truck, me in the cab finally and off we went. The drivers name was JB who I had met when George and I dropped a few people here on my training trip. The trucks name was Wiley and had pictures of Wile E Coyote all over it and all the gear labeled ACME. Compared to Shaggy which I had just come off it was a beautiful truck.

We powered on through Botswana and actually ran into Eeyore, Mugo and Ally coming north from Joburg. So like good overlanders we got out and had a chat with them for a bit. Georges bike was still fixed to the back of the truck, which made me laugh.

We stopped just before the border so I could change money and so we could fill up the tank and the gas bottle. Changing the USD into Botswana pula was easy enough, but changing it to rand was a nightmare, as first it had to be changed into pula, the woman behind the desk was getting angry at me because I had no idea why this ridiculous process had to take place.

We crossed into South Africa at about 6pm and thank god the camp site was just down the road. All the passengers were thankfully well trained and we had dinner ready in record time. I was perplexed to find that the last group had nicked all the cutlery and dishes so some had to be borrowed from the restaurant. Spaghetti bolognaise on paper plates, that's a challenge. I ate mine out of a steel mixing bowl, making me look like I was eating about five times as much as everyone else. This amused the passengers no end.

This campsite also had some nice grass for the passengers to camp on, although they didn't let the crew stay for free and the prices for camping were the same as the prices for a dorm in Joberg. After dinner we sat up chatting for a bit and I asked everyone what their favorite part of the trip had been. JB slept in the roll mat locker with all the roll mats and I slept in the cab of the truck as I had no intention of pitching a tent in the rain.

I paid dearly for my laziness, I was up for most of the night trying to swat mosquitos that continually assailed me.